Let’s make a difference.

This is a republished post from Ginger Wilcox off of the San Francisco blog. Ginger is spearheading what I consider the first significant accomplishment that the RE BarCamp movement get behind. A focused effort on effecting positive change in the battle against homelessness. It’s my hope  that the success of this first effort will encourage other RE BarCamp organizers to make similar efforts with local charities tasked with the noble effort of providing homes for those who don’t have one. I pay hundreds of dollars to go to conferences with less value than one RE BarCamp, so I took what the event was worth to me and applied it to this cause. You may simply decide the cause is good and worth $5.00 and two minutes of your time to help out. It all adds up. It’s all appreciated.  –Todd.

Over the last year, RE BarCamp has dramatically influenced the usage of technology in the real estate industry. We have created a community that filled with some of the brightest minds in real estate and technology.

For the one year anniversary of RE BarCamp, Brad, Andy and I sat around a table trying to figure out how to make REBC bigger and better, but we realized that it doesn’t need to be bigger. The size of the event doesn’t really make it better. So, how do we make it better? Does a shinier t-shirt make it better? No. What could make RE BarCamp better?

Using the power of our community to create change

For RE BarCamp San Francisco, we would like to take the power of our community and make meaningful change. As real estate professionals, our occupations revolve around housing. Unfortunately, not everyone in our society is blessed with the ability to have a place to call home. Consider these statistics:

• Right now there are more homeless children in the United States than at any other time since the Great Depression.
• One in four San Francisco Bay Area families can’t afford the basics of housing, food, healthcare and childcare without some kind of public assistance. (United Way of the Bay Area report)
• The average income for the poorest fifth of San Francisco households is just $10,019 a year. (Institute for the Study of Homelessness and Poverty)
• There is virtually no affordable housing in San Francisco. Applicants for Section 8 federal housing typically spend 5-8 years on the waiting list. (San Francisco Chronicle report

So, how can we individuals and companies in the real estate community impart change on the problem of homelessness?

Introducing…

“Housing for Homeless” is a new ReBarcamp initiative. We hope this idea takes off and is implemented at the RE BarCamp events taking place across the country.

What is Housing for the Homeless?

1. At RE Barcamp San Francisco, I plan to lead a section that discusses just this problem. Through RE BarCamp events, we have developed a tremendously powerful community. Let’s put our collective brainpower together to take a stab at aiding this huge problem that impacts people around the globe. We have an opportunity to create change and make meaningful improvements to peoples lives.
2. RE BarCamp is free. You even get a free lunch thanks to Better Homes & Gardens Real Estate. If you have ever attended an RE BarCamp, you probably know that the value of the conference is almost priceless. We would like to ask that each consider making a donation to the charity that we have selected for Housing for the Homeless/ RE BarCamp San Francisco. Whether your donation is $10 (the cost of your free lunch) or more, any donation will help.

So, who does your donation benefit?

Compass Community Services

Compass opened the Tenderloin Childcare Center (TLC) in 1976, which in 1990 became the first licensed childcare program in San Francisco to reserve slots for children from homeless families. In 1990, the agency opened Compass Family Center, their homeless shelter for families. Their transitional housing program, Clara House, opened in 1994. And in 1995, under a grant from the San Francisco Department of Human Services, Compass began Connecting Point, the citywide entry point into San Francisco’s family shelter system.

Today Compass is a leader in its field, recognized citywide for their expertise in helping families surmount homelessness and extreme poverty. By providing intensive, personalized and long-term services, they not only stabilize families in crisis and meet their immediate needs, but they give clients the tools and resources to obtain permanent housing, earn a living wage, and maintain lasting stability and self-sufficiency. They also work closely with the Mayor’s office, city officials and other agencies to identify the barriers families face in obtaining housing and employment, and to facilitate access to the services that are most critical to families’ success.

Please help us use the power of our community to create change.

100% of your donation (less the paypal credit card charge) will be distributed to Compass Community Services, a not-for profit organization. Please provide your mailing address in the shipping address field. This information will be provided to Compass Community Services for tax purposes.

Are you ready to participate? If you are, then RE barcamp is ready for you.

RE barcamp really is about you using this opportunity to step up and participate.  It’s a “user generated conference” after all.  One idea is to come with an idea for a session that you would like to have.  It does not matter if you are an expert on the subject or not.  In fact, it would probably be best if you were not.  That way you could locate others who are attending to step up and join in.  This is a wonderful way to gather the brain trust available and really make something happen.   Ideally RE barcamp should not be about sessions which are led the same way we find at conferences.   This is about the synergy of the group and your voice being heard.

No spectators.  Only participants.

Scheduling added to Upcoming

The entire RE Barcamp schedule going forward has now been added to the “events and things to do” website Upcoming.Yahoo.com.  Please add to your events if you already have a profile there, and if not, you really should get one.

Upcoming is a community for discovering and sharing events. It can help you find stuff to do, discover what your friends are doing, or let you keep private events online for your own reference.

The site is also a great way to reach out to the local communities surrounding our events.  You can also join the RE BarCamp group while you’re over there, add pictures, as well as create a badge to put in your website/blog to help promote the upcoming RE BarCamps.

From the site you can easily add to all types of personal calenders.  If you are a Google Calender user like I am, you can also add the public schedule found here.

Note:  Sharing on Upcoming does not take to place of registration for any of the Camps.   Just a place to cross promote and share with the Community service of Upcoming.   Every event has their very own ‘RSVP’ page for resistration.

@tcar Joins NAR as Social Media Manager

A couple of days ago a big announcement hit the RE.net. One of our founding organizers, Todd Carpenter, has joined the National Association of Realtors in the newly created position of Social Media Manager. Todd’s new position will make him the point person for NAR and their individual involvement as one of the many local and national sponsors/volunteers in upcoming RE BarCamp events. NAR will be host to the San Diego RE BarCamp coming up in November and Todd will be looking for a group of local volunteers to help pull together that event.

Unless you’ve been hibernating for the winter you probably have seen that the RE BarCamp concept has become a rapidly expanding movement. There have been four successful events in San Francisco, Houston, New York and Seattle. As we speak there are events with firm plans in Virginia, Denver, Phoenix, Portland, San Diego and Boston. We’ve heard from several other cities, large and small, that are under way with plans of their own.

The core group of organizers from the initial RE BarCamp have gone to great lengths to help ensure that each event learns something from the previous one. The local organizers that are planning current events are doing a tremendous job of spreading the word and doing all possible to get people of all technical and business acumen levels to participate.

The latest event in Seattle had over 220 attendees, many of which were learning about new technologies and business models for the first time. If you’ve thought of RE BarCamp as traveling RE.net meet-ups, think again. The concept is evolving and will be different from one city to the next as they take the shape of the local market and the local organizers burn up shoe leather and the phone lines to bring in people who are passionate about learning and sharing.

By and large the success of RE BarCamp can be attributed to the fact that it isn’t owned or controlled by any single person, group or entity. There is no core agenda for the concept. The agenda is owned by the attendees, both figuratively and literally.

Good luck with your local RE BarCamp efforts and welcome us in congratulating one of our own, Todd Carpenter, on his new gig with NAR.

NAR & The REBarcamp “Movement”

Hilary Marsh of the National Association of Realtors recently expressed some interest in helping with REBarcamp. As has been discussed, it’s important that we demystify what the structure of a BarCamp is. We need to do everything we can to bring into the mix the real estate professionals that need to be in the flow of the conversation the most.

I have pulled together a group of the initial organizers of REBarcamps in SF, Houston and the upcoming LA event to conduct a conference call with Hilary next week. What I think would be helpful would be input from attendees along with those who have not attended and want to know more.

How do you think NAR can be most beneficial in concert with the REBarcamp effort to expose and explain the concept to agents of all technical and business acumen levels?

Leave your comments here and we will share them with Hilary during our discussion.

Thanks!

Mike Price

RE BarCamp 2009 and a new focus for rebarcamp.com

I talked to Andy Kaufman today about 2009. We’re fully committed to bringing REBarCamp back to San Fransisco. SF is my favorite town to visit, and this year’s event was such a roaring success that it was a no brainer for me to commit my time to it again.

But I also REALLY like the idea of bringing these events to locals across the country. I willing to help do that.

There’s considerable effort involved in putting something like this together. At the end of REBarCamp SF, at least a dozen folks were hoping to do something in their local markets. Only Mike Price has actually made it happen to date. Mike’s been involved with this project from the beginning. Heck, he even designed our logo. We need more Mike Price’s to make this work. We need more people to OWN a local event.

Possible REBarCamps on the horizon.

Los Angeles – Ricardo Bueno is volunteering to organize an RE BarCamp some time in the later half of February. I told him I would help, and plan on attending. As much as I’d like to do a Denver event, I’d rather be visiting LA in February. More Details are coming in the next couple weeks. We’re looking for people to help though. Let us know ASAP!

Chicago – I’ve never been to Chicago. Yet, I know this is perfect place for an event like this. The Mid-West is full of real estate bloggers. They need an event like this badly. I’m not sure how much time I can volunteer myself, but if you want to get involved, let’s talk. Late April would work well from a weather standpoint. If you’re local to Chicago, I’ll be speaking at R.E. Connect Tech Talk on Dec 10th. Let’s get a cup of coffee or something.

San Diego/NAR – Seems to me that the annual NAR convention is the perfect place for such a conference. This is a ways out, but think about it while you’re in Orlando this year.

? – This is a free form project. We won’t stop you from holding an REBarCamp on the moon.

The future of rebarcamp.com

I purchased this domain to market the original SF event. We really didn’t envision this spreading throughout the country. To better organize at a national level, the focus of this site is changing. rebarcamp.com needs to be a clearing house for all of the other events, and a resource center for those who want to plan them.

In addition, I’ll be happy to host event blogs as well. So for instance, we will probably use something like www.rebarcamp.com/sf09 for next year’s San Fransisco event. If you want to create and host your own blog/site for your own event (like Mike did), that’s cool to. We’ll still work with you to promote it on the main rebarcamp.com site.

Moving Forward

Leave a comment, or shoot me an email if you want to get involved. In the mean time, I could use some advice on how you think this site should be structured. I’m looking at magazine style WordPress themes. Do you have suggestions? Want to help? Give me some input.

REBarCamp Lives On!

This post is long overdue considering the gentleman that sent me these praises, did so WAY back in August.  At any rate it seems like a year has past since then and the wheels keep turning.  Mike Price had initiated the next REBarCamp in Houston and it happens just next Wednesday, Oct. 22nd.  From what I understand in talking to Mike, they are expecting this to be another stellar event of countless possibilities.

Here’s what a few happy campers had to say about San Francisco’s inaugural event back in July:

Jacob Morgan – I found out about the event through being involved in the social media space and knowing folks like you and Andy Kaufman (which by the way is a great enough case study, without social media, I would have never known about the event). If came to the event for several reasons.  First of all I am launching a company in the social media and real estate space and I wanted to see what challenges real estate professionals are facing and what tools they are using.  Social media has a lot of applications in virtually any industry, the challenge seems to be finding out how social media can be applied to YOUR particular industry.  In the case of real estate, which is an extremely relationship based field, social media, when used properly, can definitely help build relationships and leads.

I learned a few things, first of all there is no substituted for quality relationships, sure social media can help build those relationships but face time is also crucial, especially in real estate.  I also learned about how some of the real estate folks are (or aren’t) using social media.  It seems that the real estate industry, which has a very traditional approach, is changing.  Real Estate professionals are going to have to learn how to use the various social media tools out there, or they are going to have a very difficult time succeeding in the competitive landscape.  As I have said and continue to believe, social media is a way of life, it should not be treated as solely a marketing medium.  You have to be honest, original, transparent, and above all authentic, meaning be yourself.  There is no point in building a solid online relationship with someone with a fake persona, because once you meet in real life, the relationship will be shattered. Look forward to the next event Brad!

Andrew M. Isreal – I run a successful web-zine in Aspen, Colorado: www.AspenSpin.com as well as a niche Real Estate brokerage, www.AjaxRE.com .  I’m in SF for the summer to “tech up”.  I’m a little older (in fact I’m considered–the “world’s oldest intern”) than most of the tech geeks in town, and therefore i still like old fashioned face-to-face networking. REBarCamp confirmed for me that to succeed in a very crowded on-line market place—one STILL needs to employ fundamental business principals.  There is no “secret code” for success on-line.  Listening to my colleagues helped me clarify that tech–is just another tool–albeit a powerful one. The three most salient points that i took home from RE Bar Camp:

1. Content is King.  If it’s boring or uninformative—they will not come.

2. Be authentic.  If your content is real–people will relate to it and  hopefully engage you.

3. K.I.S.S.  Keep it simple stupid.  You don’t need to be the super-duper tech wiz to make the intenet work for you.  Provide ”value added content” for your customers and prospective customers and you’ll be successful.  But don’t only do tech—get out there and make some deals the old fashioned way, market knowledge, contacts and hard work.

Payam Soleymani – I found REBarCamp through facebook’s news feeds.  I checked out the official site, and I saw the number of real estate rock stars attending.  I knew this “unconference” was going to make history, and I had to be part of it.  Presentations were conversations, speakers were your new friends, and the audience were the panelists.  The side chats in the halls will produce some amazing mash-ups.  REBarCamp is like a hot start-up… it’s biggest hurdle will be how to scale its growth.

REBarcamp Texas is a Go!

We’re not going to let any grass grow under the succcess of REBarcamp! After conferring with a few initial volunteers, we have decided to hold REBarcamp in Houston Texas on Oct 22nd the day before the Houston Association of Realtors annual Trade Show, to be held at Reliant Stadium. HAR does a great job every year of putting together one of the largest association events in the country. If you’re planning on exhibiting, make sure you come in a day early for the event, you won’t want to miss this! If you’re interested in exhibiting, send me a DM on twitter ( @mlbroadcast ) or email me at mprice AT mlbroadcast dot com and I will get you in contact with the right people at HAR. The next annoucement will be confirming a SWEET location for the event I am working on. So, get ready Ya’ll!

There will be beer… and possibly Tequila

photo courtesy of Thomas Hawk

Going way back to when we roamed the venue of the Swedish American Hall as a possible location for REBarCamp, the option was brought up for piggy backing the event right downstairs into the bar for an after party.   Tequila for twitterers was already in the works, but as all ambitious plans would have it, our work was already cut out for us.   The other thing that occured to us was that “Beer for Bloggers”  the semi-annual pre-Inman Bloggers Connect party would be in full swing that same evening.

Putting the old social networking skills of the RE.net to work we somehow managed to make point A come over to connect with point B and get the good folks over at Inman and Zillow to hold the event downstairs after REBarCamp.   Needless to say, we are really excited about this and I bet you are too since most of us will be right upstairs anyway.   If you are not coming to BarCamp and are just getting in for the evening, the Cafe Du Nord is a real easy cab ride straight up Market St.

Trust me when I say the joint rocks!  Looking forward to seeing you all there.  I know I already owe one BawldGuy a drink.

Here’s what some other locals think on Yelp!

Their website description:

Café Du Nord is a nightclub, restaurant and live music venue located in the landmark Swedish-American building in the Upper Market district of San Francisco.  Although the Du Nord is known for the quality of the national music acts it showcases, the club retains the ambiance of a classic lounge.  Built in 1907, it has maintained its Victorian interiors, featuring the original faux decorated paneling and wainscoting, and a forty-foot hand carved mahogany bar.  Details throughout the club hearken back to its past life as a notorious speakeasy during Prohibition.  The rich red walls and dark wood interior create the perfect environment to enjoy classic cocktails and the most eclectic live music in town — seven nights a week.

Deadlines Deadlines Deadlines!!!

Friday July 11th @ 12 Noon PST



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